Do you relate to any of the characters in the book? Yes, I relate to Shanequa and Miss Precious. Shanequa because I know what it feels like to be the new kid outsider, to feel like you don’t really belong or deserve to be in a particular place. In middle school, I became the only…
If you could have dinner with one author, living or dead, who would it be? I’d choose a living author — when you invite a ghost to dinner, you’re the only one eating, and what if they decide they’d rather not leave…?
If you had told me last year that I would be signing my book for a line of readers, I would have thought you were crazy. But that’s exactly what happened this weekend at ALA’s (American Library Association) conference in New Orleans. It was the wildest, most wonderful experience of my writing career so far,…
1. Skyler’s best friend and mom were her go-to confidantes. Who were yours when you were a teen? My confidantes as a teen were…my best friend and my mom! I am still best friends with my high school best friend. Like Skyler and Layla, we’ve been tight since elementary school. She often encouraged bad ideas…